The Tragic Ending of Rory Williams
by Loyal Eskamoe
Summary: The Legends of Tomorrow have done it again! Why not take a day or two to celebrate? Except, during the festivities, Rip Hunter sees a familiar face and it tears his heart out.
1. Chapter One

Rip hunter had forgotten. After all he went through, it was understandable. That life was completely behind him now. It needed to be, otherwise he'd have gone mad with the loss. So when the Legends decided to stay a few extra days to celebrate correcting the latest time aberration, Rip didn't raise any objections. In fact, he was even looking forward to it!

Then he saw him, bow tie and all.

It was like a shot of ice water was forced down Rip's spine. Everything came flooding back.

The Sontarans and their plot to take over Earth with tiny angry potato heads. That's not a commentary on their appearance. It was their actual plan, with actual potatoes. Those memories lead to others. The TARDIS. The Doctor. River. Her. Rip couldn't even think about her.

It was time to go. The team can stay here to drink and party all they wanted, but Rip could not be seen right now.

So of course Mr Rory decided right now was the perfect time to break a table with some sorry fellow's head.

Everyone in the bar looked over at the ensuing ruckus. Everyone save the Doctor. His terrifying focus was solely for one Rip Hunter. At least he was alone. There was no way he could face her again.

Casually, the Doctor sauntered over and leaned on the bar next to Rip. When he spoke, it was with an air of calm menace.

"Tell me who you are, what you're doing here, and why those blokes have time energy just oozing off of them. In that order."

"Rip Hunter. Having a drink. We're time travelers. Your turn." Oh yes, that was very good. Not a single bit of the fear and horror he's feeling came out in his voice.

"I think you know exactly who I am, "Rip Hunter." Otherwise you wouldn't look like that, with the nose. Just a touch off, by the way. Shoddy craftsmanship if you ask me."

"It's not what you think, Doctor."

"So you know what I'm thinking? That's funny. Good, you're funny." The Doctor stood up straight and glared. "I like it when they're funny."

"You're thinking I'm here to mess with... with Amy. You think because I look like her husband I'm planning something nefarious." Rip slammed his drink down and turned to face his accuser. "I assure you, Doctor, I intend nothing of the sort. The last thing I want to do is cause her pain. Other than that, what I am doing here is precisely none of your business!"

Sara Lance came over. The entire team was now watching. "Is there a problem, Rip?"

"I don't know. Is there, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked at the people gathering around "Rip Hunter." Some faces he knew on sight, like Ray Palmer and Martin Stein. The others...not so much. But in each of their eyes a fierce loyalty burned.

"You're not here for Amy or Rory?"

"I could never hurt either of them. For obvious reasons."

With those words, the Doctor's whole demeanor changed. He went from threatening to unassuming in the blink of an eye. "I understand." The Doctor smiled and put his hands up in surrender. "Right then! Sorry! I'll be out of your hair in a jiff! Well, not yours," he pointed at Mick. "You don't have any. But that's okay. Happened to me once." Awkwardly, the man brushed his shaggy nerd hair off his face. "Different head."

Once the odd man had left, the questions began. "He's somebody I used to know a lifetime ago. Before I became a Time Master. But it's fine. We're all fine. Excuse me. I'd like to be alone. Stay here. Have fun. Please."

Hours later in Rip's study, Mick Rory barged in and sat down with a six pack of beers.

"I'll never get over your fancy ship being able to print me booze. I love the future!"

Rip didn't look up from the picture he was holding. "I said I wanted to be alone."

Mick shrugged. "Don't care. Amy, right? She's a babe." There was no response. "Followed bow tie out and saw her cuddling up to a younger you. How the hell did you get someone as hot as her?" The estimable criminal opened a couple of bottles and offered one to Rip.

When he didn't take the beer or the bait, Mick just shrugged and pounded back both bottles. After a huge belch, he pulled out two more.

"I know who bow tie is. I know who you were. And I know what the babe means to you."

That got Rip's attention.

"How could you possibly know all that?

"Chronos, remember? You weren't the only one the Time Bastards wanted me to hunt down. Hell, you weren't even the first."

Rip laughed in disbelief. "The Time Masters were going to send you after the Doctor?"

"Eventually, maybe. They just wanted me to know about him. And you. If I ever saw you with him, I was supposed to off you. Never did though. Figured fighting you and the Legends would be easier than taking him on."

Mick guzzled down another beer. Rip finally took his and followed suit.

"Besides," Mick continued, "for a bunch of people calling themselves the Time Masters, they were scared shitless of the guy." He then grabbed the picture. "Amy Pond. Mmm. I like her hair. Tell me about her."

Rip snatched the photo back. "I'm going to need something stronger than beer if I'm to do that, Mr Rory."

"Finally! You're talking sense! On to the good stuff!" He got up and rummaged through the liquor cabinet. Mick found what he was looking for behind a bottle of Chateau Picard 2387 and pulled it out with relish. "Nothing drowns a man's sorrow like whisky!" He took a pull straight from the bottle before passing it to Rip. "Talk."

"It all started when we were kids. Amy told me and our best friend Mel about this big blue box falling from the sky and crashing into her backyard..."

The Ponds were having a picnic on the garden planet Eden Prime. Amy was laughing delightedly at something Rory was saying. She shoved some cheese in his face and laughed all the harder. He tried to glare sternly, but was soon in hysterics right along with her.

The Doctor watched them from a distance. Had either of them noticed, they might have asked why he was weeping.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow and all affiliated characters are owned by DC Comics/Warner Brothers Television. Doctor Who and all affiliated characters are owned by the BBC. I own the bottle of Chateau Picard 2387.


	2. Chapter Two

Director Rip Hunter and the Time Bureau agents assigned to this century were hunting down an errant flight ring. The Legion wouldn't be producing them for another four hundred years or so. Some upstart calling himself Chronos (Mr Rory would be furious were he to find out.) was stealing artifacts and using them to, well, steal other artifacts actually.

He and Agent Sharpe coordinated a trap for the criminal. It had been sprung wonderfully but Chronos managed to get away in the chaos. Rip was in pursuit on foot.

Idly, the director in him made Rip wonder if it were worth trying to recruit the fellow. He was remarkably capable when it came to retrieving artifacts. A few minor indiscretions like a flight ring might be permissible if…

The thought flew right out of his mind. In fact, he didn't have another coherent moment until well after she helped him to his feet. He got hit pretty hard after all. Then there's who the woman talking to him looked like.

"…I said, are you okay? You came out of nowhere and I just...reacted. I'm sure you're going to be okay. Right?" Amy Pond was snapping her fingers. "Hello?" She turned to her companion. "Sweetheart, I think I broke him."

It was then Rip Hunter found the wherewithal to speak. "Excuse me? 'Sweetheart?' Is that chap your…your boyfriend?" His wife arched her eyebrow. That was a familiar look. He blanched. "And I know that's an entirely inappropriate question. I apologize."

Amy slapped his arm. "That's right it was, buddy! You're lucky my girlfriend isn't the sensitive type! She'd devastate you, you know. Isn't that right, sweetheart?"

The woman behind Amy flexed her not unimpressively defined arms and grinned. "That's right, fam. I know how perfect I am."

Behind her, up on the roof of that building was Chronos! The slippery git saw him and took off.

"Of course, madame. No offense intended. I sincerely wish you both an excellent evening. Excuse me. He's just turned invisible."

With that the strange man ran off shouting something about sharpshooting some bloke out of the sky.

The two women looked at each other for a full minute before busting a gut laughing.

Now that Mr Clinton, David AKA Chronos was cooling his (literal) jets in a Bureau holding cell, Rip had time enough to find Amy. Or whoever she was. He set up his surveillance in a nondescript period appropriate vehicle across the street and stared at her flat obsessively

She couldn't be Amy. His best friend since childhood forgot about him once already! His Amy wouldn't have. Not again! Right? Maybe the memories were buried deep in her mind, like the Hawks' when they reincarnated? Hmm. The resemblance to Amy could be representative of another massive anachronism caused by the Silence. God, he hoped not. Last time almost let Mollus out. Not even the Time War came that close.

"Gideon," Rip spoke into his wrist watch, suddenly beet red. He could see the woman who looked like his super-model wife through a window making out with her girlfriend. "I need you to distract me immediately."

"Of course, Director Hunter. With what?"

Rip stared, slack jawed.

"Director Hunter? Your pulse has quickened and blood has begun rushing to your..."

"Yes, Gideon! Thank you! Um, let's see..." Rip leaned back into his seat and pulled up a file.

"Why don't we review what we know so far, Gideon?"

He remembered the biggest surprise being her name wasn't Amy Pond at all. She was called Em May Showers. Poor girl…. Well, it's not like Rip Hunter was that much better.

"It seems, Director, Ms Showers has lived here all her life. She has social security, school records, doctor visits, and a criminal record to boot. Her parents aren't even actors," Gideon added snidely.

Rip rolled his eyes and moved on before they could start arguing. "Yes, and all of that points to this young woman being exactly where she is supposed to be."

So if this woman wasn't Amy, why did she look like her? He returned his attentions to the Showers' abode. Ms Showers was looking out the window. Where did her impressively fit girlfriend go?

The sudden opening of his door answered that for him. She grabbed the smaller person and dragged him off. A few minutes later, Rip was unceremoniously dumped on a living room floor. Amy was glaring daggers at him from the couch.

Not Amy. Em May. Goes by May. It was May's ire he was currently enjoying.

"Are you seriously stalking me? Do you know how creeper that is?"

"Um, well, yes. I suppose I am aware."

"So then what? Are you some kinda pervo getting your sick and twisted?"

"...no?"

The red head's eyes narrowed. It was all Rip could do not to flinch at how achingly familiar she looked. May even smelled like Amy!

He pulled out an old black and white photo of Amy. She was hugging their son, Anthony. "Do you know who this woman is?"

May took the snapshot. "Where did you get this?"

"Do you?" Rip repeated.

May's girlfriend looked from the picture and back to him. May herself couldn't take her eyes off of it.

"This...this is me? How is this me?"

The bigger woman reached out to Rip and grabbed him by the lapel. "What the hell are you playing at, creeper."

Rip swallowed. "That is a picture of my late wife." Well, one of them, he amended silently. God that was depressing. "I'm simply astonished to find her doppelgänger here in...in..." the name of this town escaped him for the moment.

"New Paisley, Director Hunter," Gideon helpfully supplied via earpiece.

That was it.

"In New Paisley. My colleagues and I are law enforcement agents. We are here on an unrelated matter." He looked May in the eyes. "I apologize for...creeping. It was never my intention." Rip smiled, sadly. "That was our son, Anthony."

May looked up, sharply. "Was?"

"He and Amy, my wife, have been dead for quite some time, Ms Showers."

"I'm sorry," said May as she handed back the photo.

"I am as well, for bothering you. Both of you."

May shrugged, though uneasily. "I get it, yeah? If my Rori here died and I saw someone that looked like her..." she trailed off and shrugged. "Who knows how I'd act?"

Rip started and turned to the larger woman. "Your name is Rori?"

"In all your creeping you never got my name," she asked incredulously.

He blushed. That was indeed a bit of an oversight.

She held out her hand. "Rori Billium, professional badass."

Rip's heart was racing again. Outwardly he gave no sign as he shook the offered hand. "Rip Hunter. A pleasure to meet you...Rori Billium."

That name was too similar to his original to be a coincidence, right? Rory Williams and Rori Billium.

Once Rip was outside, he contacted Gideon, but there was no reply.

"She can't hear you, Rip the Director."

He froze. It couldn't be.

"Terrible nickname, that. Awful. I much prefer Rip the Roman."

"Doctor," Rip gasped, breathlessly. "What are you doing here?" Rip was reeling with shock. "Did you do something to Gideon?"

The Doctor put a chummy arm around him and began steering them away from May's place. After a few minutes, Rip seemed to come back to himself and shrugged out of the Doctor's arm.

"What are you doing here, Doctor?" He repeated.

The Doctor put his hands up in surrender. "I detected a ridiculous increase in chroniton particles for this time." He grinned shamelessly and stuck his thumbs in his suspenders. "You know how much I love ridiculous. And what's more ridiculous than a bloke with jet boots AND a flight ring?"

Rip considered this. "So you arrived here in this time and investigated as I did?"

The Time Lord gave his former companion a big beaming grin and poked his shoulders repeatedly with both hands.

"You bet I did, Rip the Roman!"

"Ow. Doctor, could you...Ow! Doctor!"

He stopped, immediately. " Sorry."

"It's quite all right," Rip assured, rubbing is sore shoulder. "I take it you saw her?"

"I saw her clobber you right in the nose!" At Rip's glare, the Doctor backtracked. "Yes. I saw Em May Showers. She was born in Amy's old house." The Doctor passed a file to Rip. "She even had Amy's old room! All of them do."

Rip read through the pages. Women from numerous times with Amy's face, histories that mirrored her's. They went to the same schools, worked similar jobs and, even broke the same leg at the same age!

"What does this all mean, Doctor?"

The Doctor snatched the folder back. "It means, Mr Director, the Crack in Amy's wall left a mark in time when it sealed. Think of Em May as a reflection of Amy. The area around the crack is used to a delightful, leggy redhead being there. Now that there isn't one..."

"...it made another?" Rip finished. "Is this an Amy making factory?" He asked weakly.

The Doctor looked repulsed. "What? No, what it is is a monument to her!"

"A monument...to Amy?"

Smiling warmly, the Doctor nodded. "When she grew up next to that crack, it absorbed her memories and her history. Just what are we made up of, eh?" The Doctor was starting to build up steam. It was like he had a tremendous secret and he couldn't wait for someone else to know it. "For decades the crack in everything had a taste of Amy Pond! Then she was...gone." He grabbed Rip, demanding his full attention. "The crack's sealed. Good. The space around it malleable. Better. Everything missed Amy Pond so much so the universe worked around the clock to fill a void only she can leave!" The Doctor let go, stepped back, and took a deep breath. He was awed by the majesty of it all. "Obviously it takes centuries every time."

Rip spat out the first thought to manifest from the maelstrom. "So her house is an Amy factory."

The Doctor huffed, annoyed. Typical. "One the universe built because it misses her!" He beamed as comprehension slammed into his former companion's brain.

Unexpectedly, Rip belted out a laugh, then a sob. He wondered at it. "I haven't lost control like that in years." Rip collected himself and called for Gideon, somehow not surprised when the AI answered.

"Director Hunter, are you alright?"

"Yes Gideon, thank you." He glanced at the Doctor. "Blackout all information pertaining to Em May Showers and please erase my memories regarding her."

"Yes, Director. Per Bureau protocol, I am issuing a countdown of five minutes. You have until then to countermand your orders."

"Don't do it. Don't forget," the Doctor asked.

"I need to stay away, Doctor. These women aren't Amy. They deserve to have their own lives."

First he sighed, then he smirked, then the Doctor straightened his bow tie. "Gideon?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"How've you been?"

"You know me, Doctor."

He grinned, wickedly. "Oh you bad girl."

"You two know each other?" Rip demanded, aghast.

The Doctor shrugged. "What does it matter? You're not going to remember."

"It's true, Director. Please relax and enjoy the next three minutes with this knowledge."

Rip glared. "That's a dirty trick." The Doctor's eyes twinkled, smugly. "Gideon, how long have you been in contact with the Doctor?"

"That answer isn't important, Director Hunter. You'll only forget in two minutes, forty-seven seconds."

"If I'm going to forget, then why not just tell me?"

"I'm sorry, Director Hunter, it appears the Doctor has interfered with my communication systems. Oh dear. I will be sure to contact Agent Sharpe in two minutes, twenty-four seconds."

"Gideon? Gideon!"

"Don't forget this," the doctor begged again. "I just saw it on your face. It was as though, for one sweet, beautiful moment, you were happy again. Why? Why erase that?"

"Because I can't stay away, Doctor. Not from her. I have no right to interfere with any of these people's lives. Just because they look like my wife? No. So if I forget, I just go back to normal. I can deal with normal. There's no risk of contact. No risk to them."

The Doctor's expression was sad. "I understand. You want what's best. I do too. Before your retcon yourself, answer me this question. Why have all these women throughout time, made to commemorate Amelia Pond, date and marry nurses, romans, and folks with names that sound like Rory Williams?"

"I...I don't know."

"She's looking for him."

Before Rip could say another word, the memory wipe instigated. The Doctor caught his friend and set him down gently before hurrying off. Moments later a blinding portal ripped open a hole in time and space.

The Doctor watched from a safe distance as the Bureau collected its director.

"Maybe one day she'll find him," he said softly, almost pleadingly to the universe, then headed back home to the TARDIS.


End file.
